Governor Jesse Venture is in Denver, Colorado to tour that city's
light-rail transit system. The trip is part of the governor's campaign to
bring LRT to the Twin Cities, where the plan faces renewed opposition from
some state lawmakers.

Denver has only one LRT line. It runs through the
city's central business corridor, a relatively modest five miles. Photo: Michael Khoo

IT'S AFTERNOON RUSH HOUR
on the corner of 16th and Stout in
downtown Denver. Every five minutes or so, a boxy, white electric train
cozies up to the curb to pick up office workers headed south to their homes.
Passenger Ed Hier makes the round-trip every day.

Hier: Right now it goes to the Broadway park and ride. So I park there and
ride it in to here every morning - fairly early. You have to get there very
early to get a parking spot. That's one of the drawbacks at the present time.MPR: It's popular then?Hier: Very. Yeah, actually, there's a lot of people standing, actually, in
the train.

So popular, in fact, that official estimates place Denver's rail
ridership at more than 16,000 each weekday, about 20 percent ahead of
projections. To date, Denver has only one LRT line. It runs through the
city's central business corridor, a relatively modest five miles. But an
extension set to open this summer will add another nine miles of rail
service to the southwestern suburbs. And last November, metro-area voters
approved an ambitious 19-mile line which will serve the Denver metro's
booming southeastern neighborhoods.

Scott Reed is the spokesman for the
Denver Area Regional Transportation District which oversees the LRT
development. He says the expanding rail network is surpassing all
expectations.

Reed: In terms of evaluating the success of light rail, in terms of
ridership, in terms of reducing the number of single-occupant trips, in terms
of increases in ridership on the bus feeder system, it actually is
cheaper to carry a passenger by light rail than it is to carry a passenger by
bus. All of those categories, we have exceeded our projections.

But not everyone believes LRT makes the best use of public
dollars. A fight against Minneapolis' proposed Hiawatha line is percolating
in the Minnesota House of Representatives. The Republican majority wants to
repeal nearly $100 million in state bonding authority currently earmarked for
the $548 million project. Opponents say the money could be better spent on
improved bus service.

"It hasn't taken traffic off the roads. People aren't getting out of their cars to get on the choo-choo train."

- Jon Caldara

And as in Minnesota, so too in Colorado. The most
visible critic of Denver's LRT expansion has been Jon Caldara. In 1997, while he was chairman of of the RTD, Caldera
turned voters against an expansive transit proposal called "Guide the Ride."
In doing so, he effectively killed his own agency's initiative. Caldara is
now president of the Independence Institute, a self-described free-market
think tank.

Caldara says the best transit solutions are based on rubber,
not steel, wheels.

Caldara: The fact of the matter is that it hasn't taken traffic off the
roads. People aren't getting out of their cars to get on the choo-choo
train. It just does not happen because, unlike a bus system, unlike
anything with rubber tires, your train cannot deviate.

Caldara says a system of buses, for-profit car pools, and toll
lanes would encourage efficient freeway use at a fraction of light rail's
cost. Caldara says Denver's rail line appears successful only because the
RTD cut downtown bus service, forcing bus riders onto the train.

Professor Andrew Goetz says that may be true, particularly when
analyzing the system's early years. Goetz is the associate director of the
Intermodal Transportation Institute at the University of Denver. He says it
may take until the next wave of rail lines are up and running before making a
final verdict on Denver's LRT.

Goetz: And then, of course, in 2007 we will have this southeast
corridor. That's really going to be the one I think that's going to tell the
story of whether or not light rail is going to be successful or not here in
Denver. So I think we're looking at another 10 years before we have the
answer to that question.

Governor Ventura, of course, doesn't have 10 years to wait for
an answer. Instead, he'll tour Denver's central corridor line as well as the
expansion projects in the southwest and southeast.